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Thanks to this post I called my sister in Moorpark (near Los Angeles). I have a niece in San Diego and wanted to make sure she was OK.

The reports we're getting about the fires are not telling the story at all. From the way my sister describes it, the whole damn area is on fire--from San Bernardino to the East and Ventura County to the West--that's a HUGE distance.

She has fires near her that a running uncontrolled along the hillsides and crestlines--ash and strong winds are making it impossible to breath.

Considering it was probably started by some ELF scum, I'd say the gates of hell is appropriate. Terrorists are terrorists. And if my relatives are put into any more danger because of these arsonists, there will be hell to pay...

Canberra (300,000 people) lost 530 homes and 4 lives, under similar conditions. But many more homes and lives were saved by people following this advice.

As long as the winds stay (relatively) calm, and don't start throwing burning powerpoles around* in a firestorm, both homes and lives should be safe. And if a Firestorm happens, the homes are good temporary refuges until the front's passed, then they're expendable.

I live 15 miles from the closest fire. That may sound like a comfortable distance, but the fires in Claremont that have destroyed several homes are an offshoot of the Grand Prix fire, which started a full 20 miles away!

When you step outside, your eyes start to water from all the smoke in the air. At times, the ash comes down like snowflakes. I can forget about having a clean car (I park outside) for at least a week. Damn, it even stinks inside the house!

I hope nobody else loses a home or business in these fires, much less their lives, but that just isn't looking realistic at this point. I doubt many will die, but there will be more structures going up in flames. That's a shame.

Oh, and another thing: It's looking more and more wise in light of this that almost all of the homeowners in my neighborhood got rid of their original wooden-shingle roofs in the last few years. They've been replaced with tile or, in our case, concrete shingles. Not only do they look good, they keep your roof from going up in flames should a burning ember touch down.

Hey, Steve of Norway. According to news reports, the largest conflagration was caused by a lost hunter setting a signal fire. But don't let the deaths of (so far) 13 people stop you from bleating your ideology, hmmkay? If it makes you feel better, by all means blame the tree-huggers even if they had nothing to do with it. At least you'll be able to sleep well tonight, unlike thousands of other Californians who are more concerned with dousing the flames than they are with misdirecting their anger.

I'm about 10-15 miles from the Waterman Canyon fire & now, I find out, about 20 miles from another fire in Hemet. I keep looking at the hills outside my window wondering if they're going to burst into flame.

Hey Stan, all of these fires are big, and several of them were arson, so shelve the righteous idiocy. I live at the base of the Grand Prix fire, it dropped down into the nearby neighborhoods yesterday. This fire was started by arson, not only that but fire officials are saying it took the arsonist SEVERAL TRIES to get the fire going. He didn't just flick a match, he kept at it until he got it right.

Spare it yourself, Angus. What I took issue with was Steve's kneejerk reaction to blame ELF. While I consider ELF to be nothing but scumbags, Steve's attempt to point fingers with no evidence on hand serves no purpose but, as you put it, righteuous idiocy. Sorry you missed that.

I keep thinking, "I was just there, eight weeks ago." (Of course, I left California just in time to get a hurricane in North Carolina, so I had my natural disaster for the year.)

My friends have their car packed up and their kitty ready to go, in case they need to be evacuated. Qualcomm Stadium (right next to my old work) is an evacuation ground at the moment--people are camped there because they can't stay at their houses, but they might still have to be evacuated. Freaky stuff.